A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians eBook

DANCES.

Gymnastic exercises, dignified with this name, upon
the occasion of a death or funeral, were common to
many tribes. It is thus described by Morgan:[98]

An occasional and very singular figure
was called the “dance for the dead.”
It was known as the O-ke-wa. It was danced
by the women alone. The music was entirely
vocal, a select band of singers being stationed
in the center of the room. To the songs
for the dead which they sang the dancers joined in
chorus. It was plaintive and mournful music.
This dance was usually separate from all councils
and the only dance of the occasion. It was
commenced at dusk or soon after and continued
until towards morning, when the shades of the dead
who were believed to be present and participate
in the dance were supposed to disappear.
The dance was had whenever a family which had
lost a member called for it, which was usually
a year after the event. In the spring and fall
it was often given for all the dead indiscriminately,
who were believed then to revisit the earth and
join in the dance.

The interesting account which now follows is by Stephen
Powers[99] and relates to the Yo-kai-a of California,
containing other matters of importance pertaining
to burial:

I paid a visit to their camp four miles
below Ukiah, and finding there a unique kind
of assembly-house, desired to enter and examine
it, but was not allowed to do so until I had
gained the confidence of the old sexton by a few friendly
words and the tender of a silver half dollar.
The pit of it was about 50 feet in diameter and
4 or 5 feet deep, and it was so heavily roofed
with earth that the interior was damp and somber
as a tomb. It looked like a low tumulus,
and was provided with a tunnel-like entrance about
10 feet long and 4 feet high, and leading down
to a level with the floor of the pit. The
mouth of the tunnel was closed with brush, and
the venerable sexton would not remove it until
he had slowly and devoutly paced several times to
and fro before the entrance.

Passing in I found the massive roof
supported by a number of peeled poles painted
white and ringed with black and ornamented with
rude devices. The floor was covered thick and
green with sprouting wheat, which had been scattered
to feed the spirit of the captain of the tribe,
lately deceased. Not long afterwards a deputation
of the Senel come up to condole with the Yo-kai-a
on the loss of their chief, and a dance or series
of dances was held which lasted three days.
During this time of course the Senel were the guests
of the Yo-kai-a, and the latter were subjected
to a considerable expense. I was prevented
by other engagements from being present, and
shall be obliged to depend on the description
of an eye-witness, Mr. John Tenney, whose account
is here given with a few changes: